9 April 2024 13h30-14h30
by Dr K. Crombé & A. Goriaev
The idea of nuclear fusion employment as an energy source attracts more and more attention, reflecting the current socioeconomic situation. It stimulates the further development of different classical experimental fusion devices and the fast growth of various fusion start-ups.
One crucial problem of nuclear fusion development is impurities inside reactors, which can lead to deterioration of the experimental reactor's performance. Wall conditioning procedures are a set of various plasma-based techniques that allow for a significant reduction of impurity content, increasing the chances of successful nuclear fusion outcome. The Laboratory for Plasma Physics of the Royal Military Academy (LPP-ERM/KMS) provides broad expertise to develop individual wall conditioning scenarios using the flexible experimental environment of the TOMAS device. The device is entirely operated by the LPP team in collaboration with different European scientific groups. TOMAS demonstrates sufficient technical capabilities for wall conditioning application studies to support corresponding scientific and engineering activities on the largest superconducting fusion devices, such as ITER and Wendelstein 7-X.
Last but not least, the facility is also used to train physicists and engineers in their early career stages under the guidance of the LPP team.